Only the minimum number of people should participate. Don’t invite anyone for political reasons. Don’t invite anyone to socialize them on the solution because they were part of inventing it–people don’t need to be in the kitchen to enjoy the meal at the restaurant.
No one participating by conference call… it changes the tone of the proceedings.
A very structured agenda to prevent conversation creep. You a… (read more)

Fred Wilson (Co-Founder and Partner at Union Square Ventures) Feature Friday: Simplified Conference Call Dialing – AVCI was in a board meeting last fall and was bemoaning how challenging it is to dial into a conference bridge with long pin numbers on your phone (particularly when you are driving). My friend Jordy said “Get MobileDay”. So I downloaded MobileDay and that issue has been fixed ever since.
It’s a simple and well executed app.

David Jackson (Founder, Seeking Alpha) Embracing constraints | A Founder’s NotebookWe often think constraints restrict our opportunities. But in fact constraints drive creativity. In team meetings he runs, HP manager Simon Lewis restricts the time allotted for each person’s update to one minute. Our managers have to write a monthly report which is capped at one page, forcing them to focus on what’s most important. W. hen we’ve adopted a tighter budget, we’ve often been more successful

Ben Horowitz (Co-Founder & Partner @ Andreessen Horowitz) One on One – Ben’s BlogThe key to a good one-on-one meeting is the understanding that it is the employee’s meeting rather than the manager’s meeting.

Ben Horowitz (Co-Founder & Partner @ Andreessen Horowitz) One on One – Ben’s BlogSome questions that I’ve found to be very effective in one-on-ones: If we could improve in any way, how would we do it? What’s the No. 1 problem with our organization? Why? What’s not fun about working here? Who is really kicking ass in the company? Who do you admire? If you were me, what changes would you make? What don’t you like about the product? What’s the biggest opportunity that we’re missing out on? What are we not doing that we should be… (read more)

David Jackson (Founder, Seeking Alpha) Why you should push your team to write (and hire people who can write) | A Founder’s NotebookI read somewhere that strategy meetings in Amazon start with the participants reading a paper about the topic. Benefits: (i) ensures there’s a clear “owner” for the topic, (ii) ensures that meetings are properly prepared for, (iii) ensures that people consider everything the “owner” has to say about the topic without interrupting, (iv) allocates time at the beginning of the meeting for everyone to prepare for the discussion.

David Jackson (Founder, Seeking Alpha) The optimal number of people in a meeting is… | A Founder’s NotebookThe optimal number of people in a meeting is two. that’s because its easier to understand and work with people one-on-one. You can give them your full attention, and you get their full attention. Where possible, I try to break down group discussions into a series of one-on-one conversations, led by the owner. It sounds like a lot more work, but its actually more effective and time efficient than group meetings.

Ev Williams (CEO of Medium, Co-founder of Twitter) How to End Every Meeting — MediumEnd every meeting with a “closing round. ” In a closing round, you go around the room and give everyone a chance to comment on the meeting. There is no discussion or back-and-forth allowed. It creates more mindfulness about what just happened—and how things might go better next time. And it lets you know where the group is at emotionally, as well as potential issues to follow up on that weren’t strictly part of the proceedings.